Yahoo!'s Misguided Manifesto

So, now heads must roll at Yahoo! . If so, I'd like to nominate the first one: Brad Garlinghouse.

Who is Brad Garlinghouse? He's the Internet's own Charlie Brown, a Yahoo! senior vice president prone to griping about peanut butter in his fatuously titled "Peanut Butter Manifesto," in a stark revelation of the managerial crisis that has swamped Yahoo!'s headquarters, is being taken far too seriously.

The manifesto, apparently written last month, surfaced Saturday on the blog of TheStreet.com contributor Paul Kedrosky and was quickly picked up by major news outlets. Yahoo!'s stock was off 18 cents in early Monday trading to $26.74.

It's not exactly the kind of manifesto that would make Marx and Engels envious. It whines about Yahoo! workers who "hang around." It makes bizarre boasts like "I bleed purple and yellow" (so do some insects) and "I shaved a Y in the back of my head." Most of all, it churns out vague demands such as "the current business unit structure must go away" and that hoary cliche, "heads must roll."

Garlinghouse is crystal clear, though, on a few points. First and foremost: "I hate peanut butter. We all should." (Right. Tell it to the starving children.)

More worrisome to investors, however, is the idea that Garlinghouse wants to shut down some of Yahoo!'s more innovative new businesses before they've proven themselves, cut ranks by 20%, and hold executives accountable for poor performance.

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